Search engine optimization (SEO) is probably one of the most misunderstood terms by small business owners. It’s a huge topic; many things go into optimizing a website for search. Unfortunately, nearly anyone can pass himself off as an SEO expert, and many small business owners are taken in by “experts,” only later to discover that there were some serious holes in the actual expertise.

SEO is an easy upsell for the web developer. When the benefits of SEO are spelled out clearly, no business owner in his right mind will say they don’t care about a search engine optimized website. Clearly, there’s a financial incentive to the developer to sell SEO services, but not every website developer has enough of a grasp on the basics for it to be of any real benefit to you.

Likewise and for the same reasons, SEO on existing websites is an easy sell for the search engine marketing firm. Either way, you want your website to be found prominently online, not as #106 in the search results. You’d think a firm that specializes in SEO would know what they’re doing, right? Many do, but others engage in practices that will actually hurt your website’s rankings … and it can be hard for the untrained eye to know the difference.

To begin with, there’s more to the equation than what gets done to your site. On-site SEO is only one piece of the puzzle, albeit an important one. Real search engine optimization is an ongoing process, kind of like marketing overall. Just like you wouldn’t (shouldn’t) expect droves of traffic to a brick and mortar store based on it being set up properly for business, with only an “open” sign on the door … it’s not realistic to expect droves of traffic to your site after only the initial search engine optimization process.

In future posts, we’re going to be hitting consistently on the topic of effective SEO, breaking it down in manageable chunks. Whether you do it yourself or hire it out, you owe it to yourself and your business to understand what SEO is and what it isn’t. If you’re not yet a subscriber, be sure to take a moment to subscribe so that you don’t miss any of this vital information.

A few quick tips – SEO is not:

• a design-only function. When you purchase an SEO website design or template, you’re buying a design prepared and friendly for SEO, not to be confused with a site that is effectively optimized for search.
• adding a hidden directory or link farm on your site.
• automatically submitting your site to every irrelevant site online to gain irrelevant links back to your website.
• stuffing your META tags with every loosely related keyword you can think of on every page of your site.
• adding hidden keyword text to your pages (using text the same color as your background).
• using the same title on every page of your site.
• some strange voodoo that only the elite can master. Anyone can master it; the question is not whether it’s out of your reach, but whether you have sufficient time to learn it and carry it out consistently, over time.
• optimizing your site for keywords you could never rank for. It’s about understanding the ratio of search traffic to competition in the search results, and putting your effort where it will bring results.

I’ll come back and add to this list over time. Please chime in with what you’ve learned about useless “SEO strategies” and empty SEO promises. Next up: What exactly is search engine optimization?